Jason Spaceman is not so much a musician as a cultural visionary.
A purveyor of sound for the soul, Spaceman - aka - Jason Pierce -- is the rightful heir to the psychedelic throne formerly occupied by The Beatles, Hawkwind, The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, and Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett.
Jason Spaceman
Since he was launched on to an unsuspecting public with Spacemen 3 back in the 1980s, he has been at the vanguard of exhilarating, intelligent rock, and predated the hallucinogenic beats of acid house by years.
Formed from the emotional wreckage of Spacemen 3, Spiritualized are now into their second decade, yet continue to lead the way, with their latest album Amazing Grace, on Jason's own Spaceman Records label.
On February 5, Jason and his band touch down at Oxford Brookes University.
Amazing Grace, Spiritualized's fifth studio album since 1992's Lazer Guided Melodies, was recorded in less than three weeks at Rockfield Studios last October.
"It is the least constructed and best recorded album Spiritualized has made," says Jason. "The point was to create the energy that you only usually get on live shows."
Jason, John Coxon, Doggen, Thighpaulsandra, Tom Edwards and Kevin Bales spent a year on the road following the release of Let It Come Down. And Jason says he was intent on maintaining that spontaneous sound.
"Once we had done the sessions I tried to refrain from embellishing anything," he said. There are overdubs on certain tracks, but they are pretty minimal."
The overdubs include contributions from British jazz giants Evan Parker (sax) and Kenny Wheeler (trumpet), with whom Jason and Coxon recorded as part of the Spring Heel Jack Project Amassed.
The album contains elements of previous studio albums, including Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. In the wake of its release, Spiritualized toured worldwide.
In the autumn of 1997, they played a sold-out show at London's Royal Albert Hall -- augmented by strings, brass and a gospel choir.
They played all the major European Festivals in 1998, plus two US tours -- including a gig at The World Trade Center in New York -- and the 'Highest Show On Earth' at Toronto's CN Tower.
Then it went even weirder. The core four-piece group that had recorded Ladies And Gentlemen was augmented by around 100 musicians for the recording of Let It Come Down -- including gospel and choral singers.
Fortunately for the promoters of the Oxford show (imagine the size of the rider!) Jason's grandiose ambitions have come back down to earth. But while the numbers have been scaled down, they retain the opiated drone and raw electricity of the band's early work.
Jason explains: "These songs are more emotionally naked, just as they are musically naked. There is no sound other than what we play.
"With Amazing Grace I really wanted to make a punk record, in that it's about getting it down as it happened and capturing something that is very moving."
Tickets are £15 in advance. Call the 24-hour credit card hotline 0871 2200 260. If you can't wait for the Oxford show, the band also play Reading University next Friday.
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